Hyderabad: Eitan Gilboa, the Israeli reservist whom the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF) asked Indian authorities to arrest in May this year, may have already left the country.
Natacha Bracq, the Belgium-based organisation’s litigation head, told Scroll.in that Gilboa likely departed India after their complaint became public, adding that in several other countries, the Israeli Embassy had intervened to get soldiers out soon after HRF filed complaints against them.
HRF had approached the Himachal Pradesh Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Bureau of Immigration on May 30, alleging that Gilboa – a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) 271st Combat Engineering Battalion – had participated in the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, which is a war crime.
Guesthouse signboard cracked the case
Gilboa’s location was pinned down through a painstaking process, Scroll.in reported. An Indian lawyer identified only as Pooja, who had approached HRF at an event in Amsterdam in March and offered to help them navigate India’s legal system, spent hours poring over a video Gilboa had posted from Himachal Pradesh.
“I watched the clip many times,” she told Scroll.in. She eventually made out the name of a guesthouse from its signboard, cross-referenced it on Google Maps across Himachal Pradesh and matched a nearby bank in the video with street-view visuals for Gondhla village, leading to the complaint being filed with the local police.
What the evidence shows
HRF’s case rests on videos and photographs, many posted by Gilboa’s mother Tamar on her public social media profile. One video from January 2024 allegedly shows Gilboa and fellow soldiers cheering an explosion in Khan Younis. Another from July 2024 purportedly captures him triggering an explosion that destroyed an entire residential block.
The foundation claims some of these acts of destruction were dedicated to a slain Israeli soldier, indicating retribution rather than military necessity.
Bracq told Scroll.in that the family had previously lived in a Gaza settlement before Israel’s 2005 withdrawal. “They were eager to go back,” she said. “His mother was actually expressing pride in the destruction that he carried out in Gaza,” she added.
A legal long shot in India
HRF’s complaint invoked the Geneva Conventions Act, 1960, and also called on the Bureau of Immigration to deport Gilboa under the Immigration and Foreigners Act of 2025. The organisation said India has obligations under international humanitarian law to examine allegations involving grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
However, Pooja acknowledged to Scroll.in that there is little legal precedent in India for such action, and that there was no “political will” given the close ties between New Delhi and Tel Aviv. India has repeatedly abstained from UN resolutions censuring Israel and was the largest buyer of Israeli weapons between 2020 and 2024.
In Canada, a similar HRF complaint led to the revocation of an Israeli reservist’s visa.
Broader campaign
HRF was founded in 2024 following the death of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab, who was killed along with her family after their car was struck by Israeli tank fire in January 2024. The organisation tracks the social media accounts of IDF personnel and has filed over 100 complaints against soldiers across nearly 30 countries.
India is a well-trodden stop on what Israeli backpackers call the “hummus trail.” Tourism Ministry data shows 47,465 Israelis visited India in 2024, spending an average of 24 days each.
“I don’t want them to feel a sense of impunity and I don’t want India to be a safe haven,” Pooja told Scroll.in. “I want them to feel chased and hunted in the same way that they hunt.”
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